Much of the world barely noticed but yes Apple actually released the iPad 4 alongside with the iPad Mini a few weeks ago and it has generated enough buzz, at least for those paying keen attention.

Admittedly though, the Mini served as a distraction for the classic iPad owing to the speculations that surrounded its rollout, reaching fever-pitch by the time Apple practically confirmed that indeed Apple engineers put together an in-house rival for one of tech giant's biggest money draws.

By the time the new iPad is out, it appeared that much of the energy normally trained for every Apple device release has been sapped mainly because iPhone 5 and the two fresh tablets from the firm were issued with only weeks between them. There was some sort of 'attention fatigue'.

Was this ominous for the iPad 4? To wit that Apple stores produced reports that seem to suggest the new slate inspired sales that paled in comparison with the figures associated with the first three iterations. And the bleak outlook is compounded by recent reports that by 2013, it is highly likely that iPad will begin ceding more territories to its Android rivals and to some extent to Windows-powered tablet that hitting stores this quarter.

Yet for tech experts that were totally sold to the iPad idea that the late Steve Jobs ushered in more than two years ago, Apple just presented another gadget menu that would make it hard to cave in for a fourth serving.

The biggest reason to get the new iPad, according to Macman of The Age, is the quad-core A6X processor that surely will drive up snappier performance for the brick.

The Age reviewer added that graphics-wise, iPad 4 was afforded fresh shots of testosterone, which means its Retina display technology will render videos and images sharp and vibrant with resolutions of 1536 x 2048.

His verdict sums up to this: Upgrading to the new iPad is inevitable especially for "an iPad addict."

SlashGear, however, is not too excited to move up this time around despite its admission that the processor bump and the Retina-serving (absent by the way on iPad Mini) were compelling.

Comparing apps behaviour to the last edition, the same smoothness is what users will get so shifting into another gear that delivers similar punch doesn't make sense at the moment, SlashGear added.

And The Verge could only agree, insisting that almost everything in the new iPad 4 is practically what users had seen with Apple's serving last year. It remains a beauty of course as the gadget's maker obviously aimed to push the bar higher for tablet rivals to catch up but in the end, the gadget fell short of being regarded as revolutionary, the tech site said.

But for those looking to own a tablet that is entirely reliable whether in work environment or simply to amuse themselves, then the iPad 4 is a worthy buy, CNET said, reminding though that an upgrade is not a must.

It is a fact that Apple likely pushed the envelope for this iPad refresh, easily placing it "at the top of the tablet food chain," but previous iPad 3 owners can pass up this cycle without much regret, CNET suggested.

Or iPad owners can simply avail of the latest iOS update to get the overall feel of the iPad 4 environment, some experts said, which is almost similar to driving the same car without extra expenses.